Chad Bowar: How is the tour with Killswitch Engage going so far?
Mike Hranica: So far it's been great. There has been a lot of confusion. We had to cancel a show in Norfolk because of the snow, and now they had to bring in Phil from All That Remains to sing for Killswitch. It's pretty crazy. We're doing okay, though. The shows have been fantastic.
You've played with a lot of different styles of bands on tour over the years. Do you think that exposure has helped broaden your band's fan base?
Yes, I think so. We've toured with a lot of younger bands, and that's a lot of the music that our fans enjoy, which is why it makes sense to tour with them. But lately we've been trying to do tours with bands like Killswitch and All That Remains, because those are bands that we think their fans can enjoy us if they give us a chance. So far the reaction has been fantastic. They say they've never heard of us before, but we're heavy and have a fun live show. That's exactly what we're trying to do.
We don't want to be a 19 year old band forever. We started out really young, but now we want to move on and tour with bands that have been around for a long time and have a really strong fan base and are a band that you can look up to. That's what we're trying to establish. It also gives our fans a chance to hear bands that they may not have given time to before. We want to do tours with bands that we can back. It's cool to be touring with bands that are musicians, rather than people just doing it for the look.
What goes into deciding whether you are going to do your own headlining tour, or open for a more established band like Killswitch Engage?
When we're scheduling tours, either we are going to be pushing for a particular tour, or decide it would be a good opportunity to headline. That's pretty much how it goes. When it comes to picking bands on our headlining tours, you want to pick bands that draw people. That's the point of support, to try to bring more people out to the tour. But we definitely aren't a band who are going to put somebody on the tour that we absolutely hate, and there are a lot of bands that we never want to see, ever. You want to have a nice mix of young bands and older bands.
You've played the Warped Tour the past couple of summers. Will you be doing it again this year?
We're not doing Warped this year. The way Kevin Lyman runs it is if you're on it two full years in a row, or are on the main stage one year, can't do the main stage the next year. Since the past two years we've been on it the whole tour, one year on Hurley and last year on the main stage, we aren't doing it this year. Even though Warped Tour is a lot of fun and the crowds are huge, I'm excited to get away from it a little bit. I think it's possible we'll be back to it, maybe in 2011 or 2012. It's a matter of not doing the same thing every year. If you always do the same thing, people aren't going to remain interested. Warped Tour does have its bad aspects, like bands that we don't really want to be associated with, but it's an awesome opportunity. But it will be nice to do something different this summer.
Now that your last CD With Roots Above And Branches Below has been out for nearly a year, are you satisfied with how it has done and been received?
It's been fantastic. It went beyond my expectations, numberswise. From a fan perspective it's been great, too. No matter what, some people won't like your new material, but a lot of fans really enjoyed it, which is amazing. We are a band that isn't all about our older stuff. We don't want to be known for our older stuff, because it's not the best music we can come up with. It's sweet to know the fans are backing it, and we are really content with the new album.
You just shot a video for “Assistant To The Regional Manager.” Your song titles have nothing to do with the lyrics, so do your video concepts have anything to do with the title or the lyrics?
Not really. The song titles are inside jokes. We are not a completely serious band. We're serious about the message and the live shows, but the song titles are jokes, a chance to channel our immature sense of humor. As far as the concept of the video, we wanted something different from what we've done before. We wanted something that people weren't expecting. Our last few videos have been similar, and have had storylines with some deep, metaphorical story and people never get it, and I don't really blame them. We told the director to make strong imagery, because storylines don't make much sense for us. Our songs aren't meant to have a story video. It's supposed to be something people aren't expecting and weird. That's the idea behind it.
Do you enjoy shooting videos, or it is pretty tedious?
The first three videos were tedious, doing shot after shot lip synching to the same song ten times in one day. You get sore and tired and cranky. It's fun because you're excited to see it, but it sucks having to wait a month to see what it actually going to look like. This video wasn't tedious at all. It doesn't have as much live footage as the other ones, so I only had to do two live shots, which made it easy. The rest of the day we sat around Pittsburgh watching them film the other shots. It was an easy one for us.
Are you able to work on new material when you're touring, or do you wait until you have a break to do that?
Lately we've been writing on tour because we spend most of the year on the road. Chris is our primary songwriter and structure dude, and he is always coming up with beginnings of songs, or even entire songs. For the rest of the band, when it comes time to put their parts in or jam together and write songs, it's usually when we're home and have rehearsal time.
